France | 61-year-old Frenchman repatriated earlier this year after almost 2 decades on Indonesia death row for drug offences released from jail today

Serge Atlaoui was granted a reprieve from execution in 2015 after Paris applied pressure and the Indonesian authorities allowed an outstanding appeal to proceed.

A Frenchman who spent almost two decades on death row in Indonesia over drug offences before being returned to France left prison on Friday after being granted a conditional release.

Serge Atlaoui, a 61-year-old welder from Metz in eastern France, was flown back to France in February after being on death row in Indonesia since 2007.

He was greeted by his lawyer, Richard Sedillot, as he walked out of the gate of Meaux prison near Paris, wearing a white T-shirt and grey trousers.

"He will be able to breathe the freedom that he waited for for all these years," his wife, Sabine Atlaoui, told RTL broadcaster shortly before his release, which she called "unbelievable".

She had not yet "fully realised" that her husband "is back and will be with us again every day", she said.

The father of four had his sentence adapted by the French courts to 30 years' imprisonment and then was approved for conditional release.

"The story of Serge Atlaoui, who was sentenced to death, is a life lesson," Sedillot told AFP while he waited for his client.

"His resilience, his courage, his patience and his humanity are lessons for all of us."

Diplomatic pressure

Atlaoui was arrested in 2005 at a factory near Jakarta in a secret laboratory capable of producing 100kg of ecstasy per week. Dozens of kilos of drugs were discovered. The authorities accused him of being a "chemist".

He has always denied being a drug trafficker, saying he was installing machinery in what he thought was an acrylic factory.

Death row isolation cells on Nusakambangan Penal island, Indonesia, where executions by firing squad are carried out.

Arrested along with eight Indonesian nationals, he was the only one to receive the death sentence.

Initially sentenced to life in prison, he had his sentence reviewed by the Indonesia's supreme court and changed to death on appeal.

He was due to be executed alongside eight others in 2015 but was granted a reprieve after Paris applied pressure and the Indonesian authorities allowed an outstanding appeal to proceed.

Atlaoui's case attracted attention in Indonesia and in France, where supporters saw him as a symbol of the fight against the death penalty.

France abolished capital punishment in 1981.

Pressure applied by the French government was key to her husband's release, Sabine Atlaoui said.

"It's very clear that diplomatic efforts during all those years allowed my husband to return," she said.

Indonesia, which has some of the world's toughest drug laws, has recently released several high-profile detainees, including a Filipina mother on death row and the last five members of the so-called "Bali Nine" drug ring.

Source: Agence France-Presse, Staff, July 18, 2025

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde

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